PRECURSEUR

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Course/Position

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Grounding off Lowestoft

The 'Le Precurseur' ran aground three miles from Lowestoft in position 52 30 54 N, 001 46 55 E, on Sep 15, 2020. The Lowestoft lifeboat was called out at 9.23 a.m. to go to the aid of the trawler from Boulogne and soon reached the vessel, which was stuck near the North West Holm cardinal buoy off Corton village. The trawler was only just on the edge of the sandbank and must have gone aground soon after high water. The vessel was rolling about on its keel and listed to starboard side. With its shallow draught the lifeboat was able to get close to the trawler and the volunteer crew passed over a long towline to attempt to move the craft. Despite pulling steadily and repositioning ourselves two or three times they were unable to move the casuaalty as sea was as flat as a pancake and with no swell at all the trawler was just sitting there as a dead weight. Neither the skipper or crew of five spoke good English but with the help of Cap Gris Nez Coastguard in France relaying messages from the fishing boat to UK Coastguard on the Humber - the language problem was overcome. With the trawler potentially stuck fast until the evening high tide the vessel’s owners decided to charter a commercial tow. The lifeboat returned to sea at mid afternoon to check on the welfare of the fishermen at low water The tug 'Ems Defender' came to assist from Lowestoft along with the 'Genesis' as support, and around 6 p.m. the trawler was pulled off and towed back into the main channel. There were no obvious damages to the vessel, which berthed in Boulogne-sur-Mer on Sep 16 around 2 p.m. Report with photos: https://rnli.org/news-and-media/2020/september/16/lowestoft-rnli-lifeboat-called-to-french-trawler-aground-off-corton

Trawler was threatened to sink

The 'Le Précurseur - BL.899829', 103 gt (IMO: 9224063), was threatened to sink after suffering water ingress in the Loubet basin of Boulogne-sur-Mer on Jan 8, 2020, at 3 a.m. The ship was heavily listing to port side at the quay. Several firefighters from Marquise, Boulogne and Calais wre dispatched to the scene. After several hours they managed to stabilize the ship, in particular thanks to to the unit of divers who used a submersible pump. The intervention ended around 6 a.m. French report with photo: https://www.chasseursdinfos.fr/31538/article/2020-01-08/boulogne-sur-mer-au-bassin-loubet-importante-voie-d-eau-d-un-chalutier-etaplois